Track 8

Polly Vaughn

This is a lovely sad ballad of love and loss. A man accidently shoots his true love after mistaking her for a swan.

Come all you young fellows that handle a gun,
Beware how you shoot when the night’s coming on.
For young Jimmy met his true love, he mistook her for a swan,
And he shot her and killed her by the setting of the sun.

The rest of the lyrics are below.

Young Polly was walking all in a shower of rain,
She sheltered in a green bush her beauty to save.
With her apron thrown over her, he mistook her for a swan,
And he shot her and killed her by the setting of the sun.

Then home ran young Jimmy with his dog and his gun,
Crying, “Uncle, dear uncle, have you heard what I have done?
I met my own true love, I mistook her for a swan,
And I shot her and killed her by the setting of the sun.”

Then out rushed his uncle with his locks hanging grey,
Crying, “Jimmy, oh dear Jimmy, don’t you run away.
Don’t you leave your own country till the trial it do come on,
For they never will hang you for the shooting of a swan.”

All the girls of this country they’re all glad, you know,
To see Polly Vaughan brought down so low.
You could take them cruel girls and set them in a row,
And her beauty would outshine them like a fountain of snow.

Well, the trial wore on and Polly’s ghost did appear,
Crying, “Uncle, dear uncle, let Jimmy go clear,
For with my apron thrown around me, he mistook me for a swan,
And he never would have shot his own Polly Vaughan.”